Under certain circumstances a person may be unable to answer his or her telephone. A person may be temporarily away from the phone, or perhaps near the phone but unable to answer the phone. Inability to answer a phone could be the result of, for example, an injury, sickness or the like. Alternatively, an elderly or sick person may be bedridden and unable to reach the phone. It may be the case, however, that the person is simply in another room and away from the phone.
Missing the incoming call may be only an inconvenience, but could have more serious consequences, particularly in the case of a sick or an elderly person. In particular, a friend or relative may be calling to check on the welfare of a sick person. The sick person may be in need of medical attention and urgently need to speak with the friend or relative. An unanswered call may force the person to drop what he or she is doing and go to check on the sick or elderly person. Alternatively, the person may panic and call emergency services. However, it may be the case that the person is merely sleeping and not in need of medical attention. As a result, calls to emergency services or other steps may be taken unnecessarily. Such situations could be avoided if the initial phone call were received by the sick or elderly person.
Other situations can be envisioned in which an inability to answer the phone can be at least an inconvenience. For example, pets do not have the ability to answer the phone. However, a pet owner may wish to be able to call home and “speak” to a pet through the speakerphone. Alternatively, a person may own voice-activated appliances. Such a person may wish to remotely activate the appliance over the phone. Additionally, a person may wish to record a message that is specific to a particular calling party or have a particular calling party forwarded to an alternative phone. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that provides for automatic answering of a telephone.